The History of Tyre #252311

Recent discoveries have made necessary the rewriting of whole chapters of Phoenician history. Important researches have been carried on in Phoenicia. The tel-el-amarna letters have brought back to the world the lost record of an entire period of early Phoenician life, while recent excavations in Crete have resulted in the rediscovery of the old Minoan kingdom which now rises to dispute with Phoenicia the ancient sovereignty of the seas. The history of Phoenicia is the history of her several inde pendent city-states. The Phoenicians did not seek political but commercial power. They cared little for strong political unity. Then, their land was unfavorable to such unity. It was about two hundred miles long and from two to fifteen miles wide. Headlands projecting to the sea cut this coastland into a number of small plains that had their names from their chief cities, as the Plain of Tyre, the Plain of Sidon, the Plain of Acco, etc. Thus the topography of the land was unfavorable to a strongly centralized government. There was no recognized central capital. The history of Tyre is the history of the chief of the Phoenician city-states.